Unlocking your iPhone with a fingerprint is convenient. But it could backfire if you end up in trouble with the law, warn some privacy experts.
The privacy quandaries stem as much from AppleAAPL -3.18%’s technology as from
unsettled U.S. case law when applied to the digital age.
Courts have given mixed messages about whether Americans are protected from being forced to divulge passwords or decrypt information for law enforcement officials. Civil liberties advocates argue defendants shouldn’t have to unlock their own computers for the cops. The logic: Under the Fifth Amendment, Police can’t force you to self-incriminate by testifying, or divulging something in your mind.
It’s unclear if that same protection applies if the password is your fingerprint.
“A fingerprint is entitled to less constitutional protection than a password known in your mind,” said Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. “If police arrest you and ask you for a password, you could refuse and they’d be hard pressed to force you to divulge the password.” Full story...
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The privacy quandaries stem as much from AppleAAPL -3.18%’s technology as from
unsettled U.S. case law when applied to the digital age.
Courts have given mixed messages about whether Americans are protected from being forced to divulge passwords or decrypt information for law enforcement officials. Civil liberties advocates argue defendants shouldn’t have to unlock their own computers for the cops. The logic: Under the Fifth Amendment, Police can’t force you to self-incriminate by testifying, or divulging something in your mind.
It’s unclear if that same protection applies if the password is your fingerprint.
“A fingerprint is entitled to less constitutional protection than a password known in your mind,” said Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. “If police arrest you and ask you for a password, you could refuse and they’d be hard pressed to force you to divulge the password.” Full story...
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